Morning Headlines 5/8/14

Data breach results in $4.8 million HIPAA settlements

New York and Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University will pay a $4.8 million HIPAA fine, the largest settlement to date. The data breach occurred when an in-house developer accidently compromised a network shared by the two organizations, leading to PHI being not only open to the internet, but indexed in Google search results. The health system learned of the breach when the family member of a deceased patient reported finding the medical records of her relative online.

State-Based Obamacare Exchanges Cost Far More Than the Federal Market

State-based health insurance exchanges are paying significantly more per enrollment than states that choose to rely on the federal Healthcare.gov site, according to a new Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report. Hawaii paid an average of $920 per enrollment on its state site, making it the most expensive exchange in the nation. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Florida, Wisconsin, and Virginia all used the federal exchange and paid $20 or less per enrollment.

Report Reveals Trends In Health IT Data Analytics and Reporting

46 percent of respondents in a new data analytics survey report a positive ROI on their investments, compared to just 14 percent who reported a negative ROI. Granted, the study was funded by a health IT vendor, and 75 percent of the respondents said that they are only using Excel, Access, or Crystal Reports to manage their analytics programs.